Justice Watch: The Alliance for Justice Blog

December 2015

With the Senate controlled by a newly-elected Republican majority, 2015 turned out to be the single worst year for judicial confirmations in over half a century.

Instead of keeping their promise to follow “regular order” and “work to confirm consensus nominees,” Senate Republicans obstructed and delayed the confirmation process at every opportunity. Only 11 judges were confirmed, the fewest in a single year since 1960. Only one court of appeals judge was confirmed, the worst since none were confirmed in 1953. And as confirmations dwindled, vacancies shot up. In 2015, vacancies rose from 43 to 66 (they’ll hit 70 by January 1), and officially-designated “judicial emergencies” went up nearly 160% from 12 to 31. Read more

If there was any doubt that the federal bench is in dire need of judges who understand diversity and racial struggles, and who do not adhere to conservative views grounded in white privilege rather than reality, yesterday’s oral argument in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin at the Supreme Court clearly underscored that need.

In one exchange, Justice Antonin Scalia echoed the paternalistic arguments that supported Jim Crow laws, school segregation, and even slavery, when he suggested that African Americans might be better off at “lesser schools”: Read more

On December 8, the Supreme Court will be hearing argument in a case that could radically change the nature of democracy in the United States. The goal of the plaintiffs in the case is to entirely discount the views, needs, and even existence of non-voters in the political process at local, state, and national levels.

While such a goal would have been unthinkable even a short time ago, to the surprise of many, the Supreme Court indicated last May that it would hear and decide the case of Evenwel v. Abbott this term. The case will be decided sometime before the end of June 2016. Read more

The Republican Senate has reached a new low in its historic effort to obstruct and delay the confirmation of Third Circuit nominee Judge L. Felipe Restrepo.

The tortured history of Restrepo’s odyssey through the Senate confirmation process—from a missing blue slip to a delayed confirmation hearing to a months-long wait on the Senate floor—has been well documented. Yet if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise to follow “regular order” means anything, Restrepo’s wait should be at its end: save for one nominee to the Court of International Trade, Restrepo is next in line on the Senate’s Executive Calendar for a confirmation vote. Alas, McConnell announced yesterday that he’s reneging on his promise, and the Senate will skip over Restrepo to vote instead on Eastern District of Tennessee nominee Travis McDonough—a nominee, not coincidentally, recommended by two Republican senators. This transparently partisan maneuver suggests that McConnell and the Republican leadership have no intention of confirming Restrepo this year, choosing instead to leave open a “judicial emergency” on the Third Circuit for the sake of frustrating President Obama. Read more